ABSTRACT
The advocates of the opposing theory maintained that the Grail, far from being a Christian relic, was simply the automatic, food-providing talisman of popular tradition, and as such, of purely Folk-lore, preferably Celtic, origin. The Grail story was a purely Christian ecclesiastical legend, the work of monkish compilers, its starting-point being the tradition of Joseph of Arimathea, and his connection with the Vessel of the Last Supper, used later as a ‘Saint-Sang’ relic. The advocates of the opposing theory maintained that the Grail, far from being a Christian relic, was simply the automatic, food-providing talisman of popular tradition, and as such, of purely Folk-lore, preferably Celtic, origin. At first the Christian Abbey of Glastonbury was content to base its claims to honour on its being the burial-place of certain Irish and Celtic saints. The connection of Joseph of Arimathea with Glastonbury was a tradition of late and slow growth.
